NEWDELHI: In a swift action, the Navy’s marine commandos took control of a merchant ship and thwarted a piracy bid 450 nautical miles off Mumbai. The Navy responded to a distress call from the 14-member crew of MV BBC Orinoco which had locked itself in the engine room and the steering compartment to escape pirates.
The crew managed to contact its agent UK MTO Dubai through e-mail to seek assistance. The message was received by the Indian Navy which guided a missile corvette INS Veer to the ship in distress. A big warship, INS Delhi, was also set on sail towards the location where the pirate attack was reported from. Assisting the warships was long range maritime patrol aircraft IL-38 that was launched from naval base at Goa to carry out aerial reconnaissance.
The Coast Guard was also alerted to put smaller patrol aircraft Dornier on standby. INS Delhi was carrying team of MARCOS marine commandos who slithered on to the merchant ship from a Sea King helicopter on Friday and secured the crew. No pirate was found on the ship, but implements like crow bar and knives were recovered.
Five of the 14 crew members were Ukrainians and the remaining were Filipino. The cargo carrier was registered in Antigua and Barbuda. The officials said piracy attempts were now taking place closer to India. Just as the Navy foiled this attempt, a chemical tanker was reported to have been hijacked by pirates in waters closer to India than to Somalia, the traditional piracy hub.